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Lost birth certificate prompts park policy

Would formalize how clubs handle documents

Forsyth County News

Alyssa LaRenzie

Updated:
Sept. 13, 2012, 12:31 a.m.

Other business

Also at a Tuesday meeting, the Forsyth County Parks and Recreation Board:

• Approved moving forward with plans for an archery competition course at the future Eagles Beak Park on Old Federal Road. Members Daniel Slott and Todd Holbrook were absent for this vote.

• Recommended seeking proposals for a company to build and operate a zip-line course and rock climbing wall at the next phase of Sawnee Mountain Preserve. Members Daniel Slott and Todd Holbrook were absent for this vote.

• Agreed 5-0 to do a feasibility study on the operational costs and potential revenue of an equestrian center at the planned Lanierland Park on Jot Em Down Road.

• Recommended to continue with plans for a permanent restroom facility for the new Union Hill trailhead on the Big Creek Greenway, estimated at about $150,000. The vote was 4-1, with Daniel Slott opposed.

— Alyssa LaRenzie

The Forsyth County Parks and Recreation Board plans to launch a policy that will regulate how independent booster clubs handle birth certificates and medical records.

The board reviewed the staff-proposed policy during its meeting Tuesday, but decided to delay action until getting some questions answered by the county’s legal counsel.

Department director Jerry Kinsey said the issue came to staff’s attention when a parent complained his child’s birth certificate had been lost by a booster club.

“They should have had it in a locked file where they could have found it and given it back to him,” Kinsey said, “but they misplaced it.”

Youth athletic booster clubs are independent organizations that use Forsyth County parks for field space.

The county can set regulations for the organizations through policies, which the parks and recreation board adopts.

Wayne Maddox, manager of the athletic division, said the department didn’t have a formal, written policy in place related to birth certificates.

“It’s just to formalize how youth athletic booster clubs should handle and maintain birth certificates primarily to protect kids’ identities and their privacy,” Maddox said.

Board member Kimberly Brown suggested that the policy also address what coaches and clubs should do with the required certificate copies when a season is over.

“I think they should be destroyed at the end of the season because you have to turn in a new one every year anyway,” Brown said.

Member Steve Dabbs, attending his first meeting, added that the physical forms required to participate should also be addressed in a policy to protect medical information.

The board voted 4-0, with Todd Holbrook absent, to postpone the matter to gather more information on the issue of medical records.